QUIZ: Which Presidential Candidates Lost Their Home States?

When a presidential candidate loses his home state, it is a particular embarrassment, writes Matthew Cooper. Why? The people of one's home state know the candidate the best. Test your knowledge of the handful of candidates who lost their home states, three of whom went on to win the presidency despite the loss.

CORRECTION: The original version of this photo gallery quiz misidentified a previously held elected position of Richard Nixon's.

This candidate could have secured the White House had he won Tennessee, his home state. He is also the most recent presidential candidate to lose his home state.

Al Gore lost the Volunteer State, but the loss was overshadowed to some degree by Florida in 2000.

This candidate lost his adopted state of New York in 1968.(Wikipedia)

Richard Nixon might have been born and raised in California and served as a congressman and senator, but he did own property in New York, so losing the state during his successful 1968 presidential run came as a bit of a surprise--albeit one that was not damaging.(AP)

This candidate, a liberal lion, lost his home state in 1972.

Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern lost his home state of South Dakota in 1972 during his failed presidential bid against incumbent President Nixon in one of the most lopsided electoral-college defeats in American history. McGovern collected only 17 electoral-college votes, carrying only one state, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia to Nixon's 520 votes.(AP Photo/Bob Daugherty)

This candidate was born in California but was from a prominent Illinois political family. He lost his home state twice, in 1952 and 1956.

Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson, seen here at the 1956 Democratic Naitonal Convention in Chicago, went on to lose his home state of Illinois during another failed presidential bid. He also lost Illinois during his other unsuccessful presidential bid in 1952.(AP)

This candidate, who was governor of New York in Albany (pictured here) lost the Empire State in 1944.(AP Photo/Mike Groll)

In 1944, New York Gov. Thomas Dewey, known for his surprise loss to Harry Truman in 1948 and the Chicago Tribune's errant headline "Dewey Defeats Truman", lost his home state to Franklin D. Roosevelt.(AP Photo/Murray Becker)

This candidate was an incumbent president who presided over the beginning of the Great Depression and lost his home state, California, in 1932.

Herbert Hoover won only a handful of states' electoral votes in '32, including Pennsylvania and the northern New England states.(AP Photo)

This candidate in 1860 made his name in Illinois, but he had been born in Kentucky. He lost that state amid mounting tensions over slavery that led to the Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln(Alexander Gardner)

This candidate had been the governor of New Jersey and the president of Princeton University before losing the Garden State in 1916.

Woodrow Wilson won the election despite losing New Jersey. He carried 30 states, including much of the South and Mountain West plus California.(AP Photo/Keystone/File)

This candidate, whose Catholic faith was a prominent issue in the 1928 race, lost the Empire State.(AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

Democratic presidential nominee Gov. Al Smith of New York lost his home state to Republican candidate Herbert Hoover in 1928.(AP)